IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v28y2021i5p1471-1482.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental risk indicators disclosure and value relevance: An empirical analysis of Italian listed companies after the implementation of the Legislative Decree 254/2016

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Paolone
  • Fabrizio Granà
  • Laura Martiniello
  • Riccardo Tiscini

Abstract

In response to EU Directive 95/2014, many companies headquartered in Europe have strengthened their non‐financial disclosure on environmental strategies and risks. In particular, the Directive was applied by Italian law, with the Legislative Decree 254/2016, requiring the largest Italian companies (exceeding 500 employees) to provide detailed information on their social and environmental disclosures. In this paper, we aim to analyze the value relevance of financial and environmental information provided by the Italian, non‐financial listed companies after the implementation of the Legislative Decree 254/2016. By building on the signaling theory, we set a pooled regression analysis to test the relationship between environmental disclosure and value relevance for the period 2017–2018. We contribute to the literature by arguing that Italian companies' market value depends on both their financial and environmental disclosures. More specifically, we argue that accounting information is not sufficiently capable to explain the value relevance and it needs to be integrated by a set of environmental information. Our contribution aims at demonstrating that the higher the levels of environmental risk indicators disclosure, the greater a company's market performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Paolone & Fabrizio Granà & Laura Martiniello & Riccardo Tiscini, 2021. "Environmental risk indicators disclosure and value relevance: An empirical analysis of Italian listed companies after the implementation of the Legislative Decree 254/2016," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1471-1482, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:28:y:2021:i:5:p:1471-1482
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.2181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2181
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.2181?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sylvie Berthelot & Michel Coulmont & Vanessa Serret, 2012. "Do Investors Value Sustainability Reports? A Canadian Study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(6), pages 355-363, November.
    2. Blacconiere, Walter G. & Patten, Dennis M., 1994. "Environmental disclosures, regulatory costs, and changes in firm value," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 357-377, November.
    3. Elisabeth Albertini, 2014. "A Descriptive Analysis of Environmental Disclosure: A Longitudinal Study of French Companies," Post-Print halshs-01897681, HAL.
    4. Sónia Maria da Silva Monteiro & Beatriz Aibar‐Guzmán, 2010. "Determinants of environmental disclosure in the annual reports of large companies operating in Portugal," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 185-204, July.
    5. Hany Elzahar & Khaled Hussainey, 2012. "Determinants of narrative risk disclosures in UK interim reports," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 13(2), pages 133-147, February.
    6. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    7. Mary E. Barth & Wayne R. Landsman & Mark H. Lang, 2008. "International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 467-498, June.
    8. Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel, 1997. "Investors' assessment of implicit environmental liabilities: An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 215-241.
    9. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    10. Beaver, Wh, 1968. "Information Content Of Annual Earnings Announcements," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6, pages 67-92.
    11. Kazumi Endo, 2019. "Does the stock market value corporate environmental performance? Some perils of static regression models," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1530-1538, November.
    12. Filip, Andrei & Raffournier, Bernard, 2010. "The value relevance of earnings in a transition economy: The case of Romania," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 77-103, March.
    13. Patten, Dennis M., 2002. "The relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: a research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 763-773, November.
    14. Lorenzo Dal Maso & Giovanni Liberatore & Francesco Mazzi, 2017. "Value Relevance of Stakeholder Engagement: The Influence of National Culture," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(1), pages 44-56, January.
    15. Nakamura, Masao & Takahashi, Takuya & Vertinsky, Ilan, 2001. "Why Japanese Firms Choose to Certify: A Study of Managerial Responses to Environmental Issues," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 23-52, July.
    16. Karampinis N. & Hevas D., 2009. "The Effect of the Mandatory Application of IFRS on the Value Relevance of Accounting Data: Some Evidence from Greece," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 73-100.
    17. Isabel Lourenço & Jeffrey Callen & Manuel Branco & José Curto, 2014. "The Value Relevance of Reputation for Sustainability Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 17-28, January.
    18. Noel Brown & Craig Deegan, 1998. "The public disclosure of environmental performance information—a dual test of media agenda setting theory and legitimacy theory," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 21-41.
    19. Hung, Mingyi, 2000. "Accounting standards and value relevance of financial statements: An international analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 401-420, December.
    20. Charles H. Cho & Matias Laine & Robin W. Roberts & Michelle Rodrigue, 2018. "The Frontstage and Backstage of Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Bill," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 865-886, October.
    21. Oliver N. Okafor & Mark Anderson & Hussein Warsame, 2016. "IFRS and value relevance: evidence based on Canadian adoption," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(2), pages 136-160, April.
    22. Harris, Ts & Lang, M & Moller, Hp, 1994. "The Value Relevance Of German Accounting Measures - An Empirical-Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 187-209.
    23. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 2001. "The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: another view," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 77-104, September.
    24. Mariarosaria Agostino & Danilo Drago & Damiano Silipo, 2011. "The value relevance of IFRS in the European banking industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 437-457, April.
    25. Yingjun Lu & Indra Abeysekera, 2017. "What Do Stakeholders Care About? Investigating Corporate Social and Environmental Disclosure in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 169-184, August.
    26. Stuart L. Hart & Gautam Ahuja, 1996. "Does It Pay To Be Green? An Empirical Examination Of The Relationship Between Emission Reduction And Firm Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 30-37, March.
    27. Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel, 2007. "The revisited contribution of environmental reporting to investors' valuation of a firm's earnings: An international perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 613-626, May.
    28. Sylvie Berthelot & Michel Coulmont & Vanessa Serret, 2012. "Do Investors Value Sustainability Reports? A Canadian Study," Post-Print hal-02417765, HAL.
    29. Omaima A.G. Hassan, 2018. "The impact of voluntary environmental disclosure on firm value: Does organizational visibility play a mediation role?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1569-1582, December.
    30. Cho, Charles H. & Patten, Dennis M., 2007. "The role of environmental disclosures as tools of legitimacy: A research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 639-647.
    31. Ali, A & Hwang, LS, 2000. "Country-specific factors related to financial reporting and the value relevance of accounting data," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 1-21.
    32. Hughes, Patricia J., 1986. "Signalling by direct disclosure under asymmetric information," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 119-142, June.
    33. Rita Lamboglia & Francesco Paolone & Daniela Mancini, 2019. "Determinants of the implementation of environmental risk indicators: Empirical evidence from the Italian manufacturing context," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 307-316, March.
    34. Claus Holm & Pall Rikhardsson, 2008. "Experienced and Novice Investors: Does Environmental Information Influence Investment Allocation Decisions?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 537-557.
    35. Holthausen, Robert W. & Watts, Ross L., 2001. "The relevance of the value-relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 3-75, September.
    36. Lars Hassel & Henrik Nilsson & Siv Nyquist, 2005. "The value relevance of environmental performance," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 41-61.
    37. Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Corporate investment and changes in GAAP," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-63, March.
    38. Elisabeth Albertini, 2014. "A Descriptive Analysis of Environmental Disclosure: A Longitudinal Study of French Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 233-254, May.
    39. Guidry, Ronald P. & Patten, Dennis M., 2012. "Voluntary disclosure theory and financial control variables: An assessment of recent environmental disclosure research," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 81-90.
    40. Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2015. "Corporate philanthropy in the US stock market: Evidence on corporate governance, value relevance and earnings manipulation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 113-126.
    41. Elizabeth Stanny, 2013. "Voluntary Disclosures of Emissions by US Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 145-158, March.
    42. Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel, 2003. "Environmental reporting management: a continental European perspective," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 43-62.
    43. Johnston, Derek, 2005. "An investigation of regulatory and voluntary environmental capital expenditures," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 175-206.
    44. Selena Aureli & Sabrina Gigli & Renato Medei & Enrico Supino, 2020. "The value relevance of environmental, social, and governance disclosure: Evidence from Dow Jones Sustainability World Index listed companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 43-52, January.
    45. Ronald P. Guidry & Dennis M. Patten, 2012. "Voluntary disclosure theory and financial control variables: An assessment of recent environmental disclosure research," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 81-90, June.
    46. Kozo Horiuchi & Masao Nakamura, 2001. "Environmental Issues and Japanese Firms," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Masao Nakamura (ed.), The Japanese Business and Economic System, chapter 13, pages 364-384, Palgrave Macmillan.
    47. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    48. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2008. "Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 303-327.
    49. Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel & Morard, Bernard, 1993. "The impact of corporate pollution on market valuation: some empirical evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 135-155, October.
    50. Verrecchia, Robert E., 1983. "Discretionary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 179-194, April.
    51. Ellen Pei‐yi Yu & Christine Qian Guo & Bac Van Luu, 2018. "Environmental, social and governance transparency and firm value," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 987-1004, November.
    52. Hoje Jo & Haejung Na, 2012. "Does CSR Reduce Firm Risk? Evidence from Controversial Industry Sectors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 441-456, November.
    53. Christensen, Hans B. & Floyd, Eric & Liu, Lisa Yao & Maffett, Mark, 2017. "The real effects of mandated information on social responsibility in financial reports: Evidence from mine-safety records," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 284-304.
    54. Andreas Andrikopoulos & Nikoleta Kriklani, 2013. "Environmental Disclosure and Financial Characteristics of the Firm: The Case of Denmark," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 55-64, January.
    55. Trueman, B & Wong, MHF & Zhang, XJ, 2000. "The eyeballs have it: Searching for the value in internet stocks," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 137-162.
    56. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    57. Natalia Semenova & Lars Hassel, 2015. "On the Validity of Environmental Performance Metrics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 249-258, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Michele Guidi & Emma García‐Meca, 2023. "Sustainability restatements, firm risk and controversial industries: Analysing the signals based on revision type," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 473-485, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    2. Qiu, Yan & Shaukat, Amama & Tharyan, Rajesh, 2016. "Environmental and social disclosures: Link with corporate financial performance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 102-116.
    3. Carmelo Reverte, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility disclosure and market valuation: evidence from Spanish listed firms," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 411-435, March.
    4. Jeanne Amar & Samira Demaria & Sandra Rigot, 2019. "What motivates CAC 40 companies to disclose information on climate-related financial risks?," Post-Print halshs-02407125, HAL.
    5. Jannik Gerwanski, 2020. "Does it pay off? Integrated reporting and cost of debt: European evidence," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2299-2319, September.
    6. Katrin Hummel & Peter Rötzel, 2019. "Mandating the Sustainability Disclosure in Annual Reports—Evidence from the United Kingdom," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 71(2), pages 205-247, May.
    7. Cornelia Beck & Geoffrey Frost & Stewart Jones, 2018. "CSR disclosure and financial performance revisited: A cross-country analysis," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(4), pages 517-537, November.
    8. Jiang, Yan & Luo, Le & Xu, JianFeng & Shao, XiaoRui, 2021. "The value relevance of corporate voluntary carbon disclosure: Evidence from the United States and BRIC countries," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3).
    9. Isabel Lourenço & Jeffrey Callen & Manuel Branco & José Curto, 2014. "The Value Relevance of Reputation for Sustainability Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 17-28, January.
    10. Pavlopoulos, Athanasios & Magnis, Chris & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2019. "Integrated reporting: An accounting disclosure tool for high quality financial reporting," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 13-40.
    11. Markus Hang & Jerome Geyer‐Klingeberg & Andreas W. Rathgeber, 2019. "It is merely a matter of time: A meta‐analysis of the causality between environmental performance and financial performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 257-273, February.
    12. Rüdiger Hahn & Regina Lülfs, 2014. "Legitimizing Negative Aspects in GRI-Oriented Sustainability Reporting: A Qualitative Analysis of Corporate Disclosure Strategies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 401-420, September.
    13. Mohammed Benlemlih & Amama Shaukat & Yan Qiu & Grzegorz Trojanowski, 2018. "Environmental and Social Disclosures and Firm Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 613-626, October.
    14. Tesfaye T. Lemma & Martin Feedman & Mthokozisi Mlilo & Jin Dong Park, 2019. "Corporate carbon risk, voluntary disclosure, and cost of capital: South African evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 111-126, January.
    15. Claudia Poser & Edeltraud Guenther & Marc Orlitzky, 2012. "Shades of green: using computer-aided qualitative data analysis to explore different aspects of corporate environmental performance," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 413-450, January.
    16. Janice Hollindale & Pamela Kent & Xin Qu, 2022. "Proprietary costs and the choice of hard and soft greenhouse gas emissions’ disclosure," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3837-3873, September.
    17. Veith, Stefan & Werner, Jörg R., 2014. "Comparative Value Relevance Studies: Country Differences Versus Specification Effects," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 301-330.
    18. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2019. "Mandatory Nonfinancial Disclosure and Its Consequences on the Sustainability Reporting Quality of Italian and German Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-28, August.
    19. Chang, Yingying & Du, Xingqiang & Zeng, Quan, 2021. "Does environmental information disclosure mitigate corporate risk? Evidence from China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    20. Rolf Uwe Fülbier & Thorsten Sellhorn, 2023. "Understanding and improving the language of business: How accounting and corporate reporting research can better serve business and society," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1089-1124, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:28:y:2021:i:5:p:1471-1482. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.